By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

The image that Valentine’s Day conjures up for many people is that of sweethearts exchanging gifts. Perhaps, a woman receiving her favorite flowers and candy and being treated by her loved one to dinner out at a restaurant.

“Valentine’s is not romantic and positive for every individual. For some individuals, it is another day of facing abuse from their partner,” according to Stephanie Noyes, the Lakes Region prevention advocate at Through These Doors.

“Globally, the V-Day events are held in recognition of the One Billion Rising movement. There are a lot of global efforts that give rise to awareness of violence against women, that shine a light on violence against women,” Noyes said.

On Friday afternoon, almost 20 people showed up to participate in a flash mob dance in the courtyard of the Bridgton Public Library. The reason was to demonstrate this community’s common ground with the global movement One Billion Rising. 

The flash mob was a collaboration between grant partners Through These Doors (formerly known as Family Crisis) and the New England Arab American Organization (NEAAO) and also the Bridgton Police Department.

The flash mob and other activities are held  “on Valentine’s Day because in domestic violence services, Valentine’s has been called V-Day since Eve Ensler started The Vagina Monologues. On V-Day, a lot of groups and colleges and women’s organizations perform The Vagina Monologues — Bowdoin College did it. That morphed into a larger global movement called One Billion Rising,” according to Melinda Thomas, who works as a program assistant for NEAAO.

“In 2013, V-Day become a really huge thing to draw attention to violence against women and girls, and harassment against women and girls,” she said.

“Even though we are a small town, we wanted to show a little bit of solidarity with women around the world,” Thomas said.

“There were flash mobs all over the world. There were groups in India, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela,” she said, adding that in the United States, a well-populated flash mob took place in Washington Square in New York City.

Despite the fact it was probably not even 10 degrees out, taking part in the flash mob was an enriching experience for Thomas and others.

“The thing about the flash mob dance, it is upbeat. We use very upbeat music. We dance to empowering music” such Aretha Franklin’s Respect,  Thomas said.

“Even though we are grappling with a difficult issue, we are framing it in an upbeat, empowering way,” she said. 

“One of the participants brought her two teenage daughters so they could also take part in the activism,” she said.

“The feedback we got was: that they were so glad to participate in an event like this, that Bridgton hasn’t had many events like this, that it was a great opportunity to learn about issues,” Thomas said.

In fact, NEAAO and Through These Doors plan to have a flash mob next year on Valentine’s Day.

Members of the Bridgton Police Department showed up for the duration of the flash mob, which started out with people holding signs and standing on the sidewalk on Main Street. The activities took place in the library courtyard. Both men and women were involved in the event, which lasted about 20 minutes.

One thing that didn’t show up was warm weather. 

“The weather — these issues still happen no matter the weather. And the activism still needs to happen,” Thomas said. 

“We knew a lot of people who were coming but they didn’t come because it was like 5 degrees that morning,” she said. 

Noyes agreed the weather might have decreased the number of participants.

“There were 15 to 20 people who participated in some capacity — whether they were dancing, holding a sign, or video-taping the dancers. I think for the weather that day, that is an awesome number,” she said.

“People said that it was a lot of fun. Some of the Through These Doors staff were from Greater Portland. They felt happy that such a positive event brought them up to Lake Region,” she said.

“It was uplifting. It was really powerful. It was empowering. What a great event,” Noyes said.